Chris Mccandless Selfishness In Into The Wild

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In the book, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, the main character, Chris McCandless disappears into what it seems to be thin air, and nobody, not even people he met along the way of his journey and the people he was close with his whole life, knew where he went or why he did it. The author, Jon Krakauer interviews several people that have had a close interaction with Chris-- or as those who’ve met him along the way knew him as, Alexander Supertramp-- to try to figure out the reasoning behind Chris’s disappearance. Although, from reading the book, it seems that one of the reason that Chris McCandless went into the wild was because he wanted to prove to himself that he ,could be self-reliant or independent, and live completely opposite of how …show more content…
However, that is not the case. Throughout the book, many of Chris’s actions were ignorant, ungrateful and seems to be somewhat selfish. He went into the wilderness without proper knowledge of how to live out there in the wild, and even without the proper equipment, even little things that can help you guide of where you are, location wise, a map. He threw it out thinking that he’d explore an unexplored part of Alaska. In the artice “Why the Teen Brain Is Drawn to Risk,” by Maia Szalavitz, it states that “... adolescents carefully think about risks most adults would not even consider taking…” (Szalavitz ¾) However, it seems that Chris isn’t taking much like an adult. He’s thinking like someone who’s a teenager, however, the only difference between him and a teenager, is that a teenager wouldn’t throw away any simple resources, and accept any help they can get. By going out into the wilderness, without the help of such simple resources, he was eventually just committing suicide. He was inconsiderate of how his actions may affect his loved ones, and those who met him along the way. However, in the end of his journey--which proved to actually be fatal-- it was very obvious that he wanted to keep going because of the notes he wrote asking for someone to save

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